Political reporter von Sternberg says Rep. Oberstar dwelt mainly on what he and the Democratic majority have accomplished:

It was billed as another high-minded Humphrey Institute forum over the lunch hour Monday, carrying the portentous title, “Transportation Policy and America’s Future.”

The event was to showcase the thoughts of DFL Rep. Jim Oberstar, the 17-term dean of Minnesota’s congressional delegation and the powerful chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

In fact, the hour-long session at the University of Minnesota was something of a victory lap by Oberstar after the opening months of the 110th Congress. He reveled in his use of the levers of power, touted how much has actually been accomplished, and backhanded the erstwhile Republican majority for its do-nothing ways.

“With the position I’m in now, I’m chairman and I can make this happen,” Oberstar said in so many words more than once, his face lit up with a smile.

If there was any doubt just how important the transportation committee is as a legislative gateway, he pointed out that it’s a primary way-station for $80 billion in federal spending “that moves America.”

He ticked off bills that already have cleared the committee, gone on to be passed by the full House or are still being negotiated with the Senate. Among them, implementation of the 9/11 Commission’s transporation recommendation, a rail transportation security bill, the water resources development act, the surface transportation bil, and the water resources bill.

“We’ve had 28 bills pass the House, which is more than in the full two years of the 109th Congress,” Oberstar said.

Oberstar took particular delight in prying loose a revolving loan fund for building sewage treatment plants around the country.

And Obserstar said he was especially proud that the Department of Energy’s department headquarters in Washington will be outfitted with an array of photovoltaic cells by year’s end, an energy conservation idea he’d taken up 20 years ago as a young congressman.

“I’m chairman now,” he said. “I can do that. And I did.”

Bob von Sternberg

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Actually, parthian, we do have two. Peterson is chairman of the ag committee. Although he is DFL, he’s not quite liberal enough to garner the love from many in his own party, which is tragic. This example is a great illustration of that phenomenon.

Of the 28 that have been passed by the house, how many have been passed by the Senate? It is easy to send something off knowing that it will never become law. Oberstar is one of the house members that refuses to reveal his earmarks.

My thoughts are just the opposite, dare2…..I think Oberstar is generally a pretty socially conservative leaning guy. But his district includes Duluth and the Iron Range so he needed to embrace unions and labor for political survival.

All a matter of perspective, I guess. I think the fact that a good public servant, who acts in the best interests of the peopel he represents, and as a result often times gets crapped on by those in his own party because he’s not marching in lock-step with 100% of that party’s agenda, is the root of what is wrong with this system.

To clarify, Cash,
I was at the event and Oberstar went into “encyclopedic detail” (to quote the event’s moderator Larry Jacobs) describing the new ear mark policy his committee has been delighted to follow. Each addition to any bill has to be signed off and declared by the congressperson who writes it in.

And for the record, Oberstar is anti-gun control and adamantly pro-life.

Remember, however, who he was talking to: The Humphrey Institute. And who was doing the reporting: the Strib.

Perhaps a little more “ALL the facts” content might have been in order in the reporting.

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